Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Strato's
is a musical project based in Parma that came to life in 2015 when
five young musicians in love with the music and atmospheres of the
Italian B-movies of the seventies joined their forces to play covers
taken from the soundtracks of those films and original pieces
inspired by artists such as Ennio Morricone, Franco Micalizzi, Piero
Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, Riz Ortolani, Goblin, Osanna, Carlo
Rustichelli, Frizzi-Bixio-Tempera, Calibro 35 and others. The name of
the band refers to The Lancia Stratos, a sports car and rally car
very popular and successful in the seventies and the line up features
Leonardo Barbieri (electric and acoustic guitar), Marco Mainardi
(bass), Davide Sandrini (drums), Emanuele Nidi (electric organ,
string machine, piano), Luis Pezzoli (percussion). After a good live
activity on the local scene, in 2016 they released an interesting
debut album on Retro Vox Records entitled Lo sbirro, la liceale,
il maniaco (The cop, the
high-school girl, the maniac), a tribute to the Italian cinema
di genere of the seventies, in
particular to poliziotteschi,
sexy comedies and
thriller/horror B-movies
as suggested by the beautiful art cover by Matteo Xulli.

The
album is divided in three parts, each one with three tracks. The
first three tracks were inspired by the Italian crime films full of
action, car chases and gunfights also known as poliziotteschi.
The opener, "La Soffiata" (The leak) features some excerpts
of dialogues taken from the film Roma a mano armata (The Tough Ones) directed
by Umberto Lenzi. It starts with the call of an informer to the
police. Pulsing bass lines pump tension and adrenaline... Then the
rhythm rises swinging from frenzied funky rides to more calm,
reflective moments. The following "Western metropolitano"
(Metropolitan Western) and "Irruzione a Monteverde"
(Irruption in Monteverde) are in the same vein and you can imagine
bloody scenes and breathtaking chases through the streets of Rome or
Milan...

The
second part is dedicated to sexy comedy and the atmosphere are more
relaxed. "Apertitivo" (Appetizer) is introduced by an
excerpt from the film A tutte le auto della polizia (Calling All Police Cars), directed
in 1975 by Mario Caiano. The atmosphere is suggestive and relaxed
with a touch of mystery in the background. A short excerpt taken from
the advertisement of an Italian beer leads to the light-hearted "Un
goffo pretendente" (A clumsy pretender) featuring a lively beat
and funny melodic lines played by Luca Cristofori on kazoo.
"Rossella" (featuring the seducing vocals of the guest
Rossella Finardi) closes the trilogy dedicated to eros and
drives us to thanatos...

Strato's 2016

The
last part of the album is dedicated to the dark, tense atmospheres of
the Italian horror/thriller films made famous by directors such as
Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci. "Chipsiomega" is a clear
tribute to Dario Argento's film Profond Rosso (Deep Red) and to its
soundtrack by Goblin. In fact, Chipsiomega was the temporary
title of Profondo Rosso... This piece is an authentic ride through
recurrent nightmares and hidden fears and features also some excerpts
from the film Solamente Nero (The Bloodstained Shadow)
directed by Antonio Bido in 1978. The disquieting "Delirio
paranoide" (Paranoid delirium) and the melancholic closer
"Titoli di coda" (Credits) complete the scene full of
wild energy and delicate surprises.

The
main course of the album is the title track, a wonderful, dreamy
thirty-eight minute suite divided into eleven parts. It was inspired
to Roberto Vitelli by a holiday he spent in France and starts with
the narrative vocals provided by former Genesis member Anthony
Phillips who reads some verses taken from Lines Written On
Visiting The Châteaux On The Loire,
a poem by Alfred Austin. Just close your eyes and let the
music flow and show you some pondering pictures of the vast
panorama of the past... In fact, the Loire Valley is studded with
over a thousand châteaux, each with distinct architectural
characteristics covering a wide range of variations, from the early
medieval to the late Renaissance periods.

Some sections of the suite
are dedicated to some specific castles, amazing monuments of heart
and mind such as Sully-sur-Loire, Meung-sur-Loire, Blois,
Chambord and Chaumont-sur-Loire while the other sections mark the
passages from one place to another as thoughts and feelings get mixed
in an intermittent dream, cradled by the river waters. No need
for words: except the narrative vocals that open and close the suite
there are no lyrics and even the beautiful voice of Luciano Regoli is
used here just as an instrument to add colours and emotions. By the
way, Luciano Regoli (singer from Raccomandata con Ricevuta di
Ritorno, Samadhi, DGM) is also a talented painter and took charge of
the wonderful art cover that probably depicts the atmosphere of this
album better than all my words...

The
last two pieces are credited as bonus tracks but they are not fillers
at all. The mysterious, dark "The Ancient Samovar" tells in
music and words about the almost magic power of an ancient samovar, a
heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in
and around Russia as well as in other countries. Thanks to the
thaumaturgic properties of its tea you can relax even in a silent,
troubled night, waiting for the sun with a renewed feeling of hope...
The closer "Wintry Afternoon" is a beautiful, melancholic
instrumental track with the notes of an acoustic piano in the
forefront the the sound of the wind in the background.

On
the whole a very good album!

Ellesmere:
Les Châteaux de la Loire (2015).
Other opinions:

Thomas
Szirmay: The music is highly atmospheric, gentle and sweet
background music that has no pretensions other than to deliver
sumptuous melodies, played with restrained passion and obvious
enjoyment... (read he complete review HERE)

Thursday, 15 June 2017

So
Does Your Mother come from Rome and have been active on the local
scene since 2009. The aim of the band is mixing the complexity of
progressive rock with the simpler rhythms and glamorous atmospheres
of disco music. In 2013, after many line up changes, So Does Your
Mother self released a studio EP entitled Fac(e)ing the Animals
and in 2015, after a long, hard work with producer Marco Molteni, they
finally released their first full length album, Neighbours.
The line up features Lorenzo Sidoti (guitar), Vladimiro Sbacco
(keyboards), Gian Maria Camponeschi (bass), Alessio Zappa (drums),
Francesco Antonini (flute, vocals), Letizia Lenzi (clarinet), Carmine
Di Lauro (sax), Francesca Faraglia (vocals), Domitilla Masi (vocals)
and Maria Onori (vocals) but during the recording session they were
helped also by some guests such as Isaac "Ike" Willis, an
American vocalist and guitarist who was a regular member of Frank
Zappa's studio and touring bands from 1978 to 1988, and vocalist Ghita
Casadei. The artwork by the well-known street artist Mr. Thoms describes in some way the theatrical and ironic musical approach of
the band...

The
opener, "Mitile Milite" is a lively track with surreal
lyrics sung in ancient Latin. It starts softly, with the dark notes
of a clarinet, then the rhythm rises and the mood changes mixing funk
and folksy flute passages à la Jethro Tull. Then comes the sarcastic
"M.D." (festuring the guest Ike Willis) that depicts in music
and words a greedy, unscrupulous manager exploiting new bands
trying to make them play for free.

Next comes "Swallow", a ferocious attack to the distorted
use of social media where everyone can vomit words and trash online while
the suggestive "Modern Seducer" is a surreal portrait of a
stripper man under the lights of a discotheque, a very peculiar
exotic dancer crawling almost naked on the floor for the amusement of
women...

"Under
the Roof" is a tense piece in seventies style. Here the
atmosphere could recall the scene of a thriller film score where
spiders and scorpions are moving under the roof... It leads to the
funny, irreverent funk of "Your Mother". The following "Red
Leaf" is a short, surreal track about the life of a very
peculiar character watching TV on a bumble bee with sax and slapping
bass lines in the forefront. "Modern Seducer Reprise"
closes the album with a different, more relaxed version of the fourth
track.

On
the whole a funny, interesting album where the band showcase good
musicianship and excellent song-writing skills.

Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Nicola
Pardini is a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer from Pisa who in 2016 self-released a very interesting debut album entitled
Archimede, featuring the precious collaboration of vocalist
and lyricist Stefano Simoncini. On the album Nicola Pardini plays all
the instruments showcasing not only a great musicianship but also a
songwriting full of inventiveness and an extraordinary sense of
rhythm while the vocals and poetry of Stefano Simoncini add colours
and visionary images, strange melodies and exotic flavours. You can
hear here influences ranging from jazz rock to prog, from classical
music to folk and more, all mixed with gusto and freshness...

The
long opener "Pietra e sasso" (Rock and stone) is a
magnificent epic about the mystery of life and the origin of the
universe seen through the eyes of a child. It begins by the
description of a spectral landscape and the threatening images of a
wild nature on a primordial plante, the atmosphere is dark, the
rhythm pounding and tight. There are eruptions and thunders, you can
see shapes of broken rocks swept by the wind under a heavy black sky
while you're slowly dragged into a nightmarish world, towards new
borders, new mysteries, new certainties, new passages, new tides, new
entities, new currents, new horizons... Now new stars shine over you
and in the depth of the earth you can perceive a hellish power
without humanity stirring under your feet as the whole universe
dances following the rhythm of the gravity force... Then the
atmosphere becomes more relaxed and a new image appears: there's a
little boy under a tree in front of a mountain, he takes a stone from
the ground and observes it, the stone seems able to speak and he asks
the stone from where it comes from... The stone answers, it's like in
a dream, there's magic in the air as the music runs through a jazzy
area before coming back to the starting point with a reprise of the
first part. A wonderful track that every now and again could recall
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and Area!

The
dreamy "Bilbo Song", inspired by a J.R.R. Tolkien's
character, tells in music and words of an endless journey through
dark, timeless woods, where you can walk by light steps upon fallen
leaves, touching softly invisible shadows, following the notes of a
spring song carried by the wind with joy in your heart and hope in
the future... Over the clouds there's a silver ship, come on board!

The
following "Baffoman" tells of a music that is able to melt
Time as you try to escape from bad memories, running away from carved
smiles and greediness. The music flows halfway between enthusiasm and
nostalgia as you are hiding away, trying to break through the walls
of a busy city where you can never find a quiet moment. Then comes
"Nostalgico" (Nostalgic), a piece where the lyrics evoke
the memory of a smile that can give birth to melancholic shivers and
powerful emotions pushing you to seek for new musical dreams...

The
title track, "Archimede", was inspired by the character of
Archimedes of Syracuse, a famous Greek mathematician, physicist,
engineer, inventor and astronomer. The music is rich in ideas,
changes of rhythm, games of balance and other delicious intricacies
while the lyrics evoke a spectacular sundown and the weight of
dreams. Here ideas and concepts are compared to precious treasures to
discover, imagination is what can really lead to a better future
following an abstract path that will surprise you!

Stefano Simoncini

"Hoima"
is a piece that conjures up exotic sceneries and the rhythms of
Africa. The title refers to a city in Uganda, near the Lake Albert,
and the lyrics describe a landscape of incredible beauty, full of
positive energy. The following "Solitario" (Solitary) is
another colourful track with strong ethnic flavours that could drive
you from Africa to Jamaica and back to Europe in a while, almost
making of distance an empty word...

The
closer "Memo" is a calm, reflective track that tells about
lost chances and disappointments that you can cure thanks to the
healing power of music. There's always a gap between dreams and
reality that you have to fill during your life. Sometimes let the
music drive your way and take it easy: with a new awareness you can
really look at the world under a different point of view!

On
the whole, this a very interesting album and if you like bands such
as Deus Ex Machina or D.F.A. I'm sure you'll love it!